Brands and Creators need to see this from VidSummit 2017 – Updated

That is how Derral Eves kicked of VidSummit 2017 and watching the free live stream on Periscope, I realized instantly that this is a unique conference. It’s not about the hype and the theory of being a content creator, but VidSummit is about the BUSINESS of being a content creator.

Unfortunately, due to various commitments, I was not able to attend but sifting through the various Tweets and Live Feeds, I have compiled some golden nuggets that I will be implementing in my business.

Note: These are snip bits from talks given by professionals at VidSummit. If you want to watch the entire presentation, go to VidSummit.com and purchase a virtual ticket and tick the box that offers a replay of all the presentations.

With that disclaimer in mind, here are my notes from day 1 of VidSummit 2017.

Updated 10/17/2017: check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s video about Vidsumit and the lessons we can learn:

Live Video by Luria Petrucci

Brands and creators should be getting into Live Streaming and Luria is the authority in this field.

Luria runs Livestreamingpros.com and shared her various Live Streaming tips to ensure that your audience is captivated, gets value and that leads them to your monetized product/ service. So yes, you can give away free information and still be an effective business.

When it comes to equipment and gear, Luria breaks down Live Streaming into 4 levels

Level 1 – Selfie Stream: this is raw and fun and is done with your phone.

Level 3 – USB Setup: Camera and mic connected to your computer. This is an easy way to get a more professional, simple and yet excellent setup.

Level 4 – Dedicated Setup: This is when you set up a dedicated studio environment.

So now that you have your equipment, there are two types of LIVE that you can put together. Luria calls them Live Shows and Life Streams. A Live show is there for your audience to consume content but a Life Stream is more raw and engaging and more like “hanging out”. Put them together and they give you credibility!

Now the audience is engaged and is hungry for more from you.

Luria has tons of info over on her website including some serious training which is highly recommended having followed her for a while now.

Derral Eves – leveraging the algorithm

What I like about Derral is how he just gets to the point and doesn’t mince his words. Derral was all about a simple notion: if you understand how the YouTube algorithm works, you can use that to grow your YouTube channel and it all boils down to this: “The ultimate aim for YouTube is to get people to come back daily to watch content and spend more time on the YouTube platform.”

Derral dived deep into his tips on how to execute some tips and tricks to show the YouTube AI that your content matters.

Some of the nuggets from Derral are:

Clusters:

You need to understand how your channel is related to other channels of similar geography, similar viewer-behavior as YouTube groups these together as Clusters. YouTube AI learns how your channel’s content can grow together as it pushes each other’s videos to the same audience.

This makes sense.

If you are a looking at the latest iPhone review, it is likely that you will want to see several videos. You will also want to see drop tests, speed tests, game tests etc. so YouTube clusters this type of content so you keep watching and watching and watching.

Many creators create a “hero video” which is the main video that they spend more time and money on. What Derral suggests is not to just launch the hero video but create a pre-video that gets the audience ready and excited for the hero video. Then launch the hero video which is followed by a post-hero video and even another hero video.

Why?This sends a strong signal to YouTube AI that this is a series of worthy content so it

This sends a strong signal to YouTube AI that this is a series of worthy content so it pushes new audience to watch the series. Increasing your views, your watch time which in turns sends an even stronger signal to YouTube AI. Rinse and Repeat.

Power clusterscontent strategy:

This is where you have friends/ connections and other creators create content that feeds off each other so that YouTube bounces the audience from one channel to another with the “Next Up” video recommendation.

Derral goes into more depth and more strategies during his hour keynote which I highly suggest you watch.

Ricky Ray Butler–

Someone who is a hero in creator space is Ricky Ray Butler. Ricky has been responsible for carving the pathway for creators to work with brands and his story is fascinating.

Rocky started a company in 2008 which was one of the first companies to help brand work with creators (Plaid Social Labs). At the time no one believed that teens will be the future….

Fast forward 7 years and he sold his company to Bill Gates’ Corbis and rebranded to Branded Entertainment Network (BEN) in 2015 where they continued the mission to teach brands that “the future of advertising is IN the content and not OUTSIDE of the content, especially as companies are moving to non-ad supported platforms such as Netflix and YouTube Red.”

“Influencer marketing is a bigger communicate and skyrocketing year after year.” and Ricky shared the following:

95% of marketers will incorporate at least 1 influencer into their marketing strategy.

62% of marketing, comms and PR experts say their influencer marketing budget will increase in the near future

88% of brands who used influencer marketing tactics thought they were effective at raising awareness about their company or its products

Influencer needs to be part of the brand strategy – a brand today could work with 5000 influencer that fits their brands. However, Influencers can’t be relegated to the sides as this is a new way of communicating and they need to be part of the mix.

Rules for Brands:

One hit wonders don’t scale – brands don’t need to work with just the top influencers but should work with a variety of micro, mid-tier and top-tier influencer. “When it comes to conversation and driving sales, smaller creators have a loyalty.” Says Ricky so working with more influencer and be more efficient.

Empower the content – don’t disturb it. Creators know their audience, their growth is all about communicating with the audience. Therefore when it comes to positioning a brand message, the creators know how to do it in a way that their audience can relate to.

Process matters – Be clear with what you want to achieve. Be simplified so it’s digestible and knows what they need to deliver. A traditional brief that RFP that brands send out is not workable. Know what is working and when to pull the plug when the red flag comes out.

Rules for Creators:

Stay true to yourself – whatever campaign is, make sure it fits into your content and that your objectives are in line with the brand. Remember that you are the creative director so educate the brand on how to work with you.

Long-Term Relationship – make sure you build a good reputation and deliver so you become top of mind when the brand wants to initiate another project. Many companies have other brands under their umbrella so you become part of that mix.

Focus on Solutions – stay flexible and solution-oriented says Ricky. Don’t be the complainer, come up with solutions, be flexible and be clear in the agreements.

Disclosure Rule:

Finally, Ricky sums up that influencers work by being authentic and that means disclosure. You got to abide by FTC rules in the USA. The more aggressive people are, the more the audience appreciate it – it shows transparency.

Influencers are key to engaging with an audience that is desperately trying to avoid advertising. When you find the right mix of influencers and content – then this is where the magic happens.

So in Summary:

This was just day 1. No. This was just a fraction of the speakers on Day 1. I would have loved to hear other speakers too such as Gary Vaynerchuk and Dan Lok and of courseShaun McBride “Shonduras” to name but a few…

Anyone else feels like they seriously missed out? *he says as he raises his hand…